Big season ahead for Women's regions

Defending champions Ospreys are aiming to make it a hat-trick of titles when they begin their defence of the Women's Regional Championship against the Scarlets at Llandarcy on Sunday (KO 3pm).

The Ospreys have claimed back to back titles over the past two years with Team Manager Ade Howells 'quietly confident' of a repeat success.

"Even though we have won the title twice we will not be taking anything for granted against the Scarlets as they will be a tough opening game for us as they have a tough pack and some dangerous backs.

"This year the selection process has been really tough for us. We've always had strength but now we have that in depth - even on the bench. We've got a well-rounded squad with a strong engine room, a busy back row and a backline good in defence as well as attack so the signs are looking good.

"We aren't a group of super stars - the girls have worked hard over the summer and all of them have bought into what we are trying to achieve here. If we can win again, it will be what the players deserve."

The Scarlets will be fielding a side which has every club in its region represented from as far afield as Haverfordwest to Lampeter. Head coach Daryl Morgan believes he has assembled a squad which can vie for honours.

"Going into this season we are optimistic of doing well. Last weekend's festival at Cardiff Arms Park has done us a world of good," he said.

"We have a lot of international experience in the side with Sioned Harries, Lowri Harries, Catrin Edwards and Elen Evans all internationals. Mixed with that we have the likes of Ffion Jones, Jasmine Joyce and Rhian McCulloch who were all part of the Scarlets Under 18 championship winning side from last season.

"It's going to be tough to start against the champions but we are optimistic of doing well and getting the campaign off to a winning start."

The early kick-off (1pm) at Llandarcy sees the Dragons tackle the Blues.

Dragons Director of Rugby Gwesyn Price-Jones is predicting a high scoring affair as both teams like to play an attractive brand of rugby.

"The Blues are a well-coached team who like to play a quick game and spread the ball wide to their wingers. In some ways, it's a similar type of game plan to ours so I expect it will be a high-scoring, attacking game with plenty of tries," she said.

"They will look to use their big forward runners around the base of the ruck. It's going to be a high intensity game and we have to be ready for that.

Jones firmly believes the Dragons are now reaping the benefit of an improvement in coaching development.

"The level of coaching in the clubs in the Dragons region has improved rapidly so we have seen the quality of the players coming through our programme improve as a result. We've had good numbers in training and a couple of exile players who are now available so I've got a few selection headaches."

Blues head coach Nadine Griffiths is also in a buoyant mood ahead of Sunday's doube-header.

"Things are looking really good for us. We've got a couple of injuries to our internationals but we held an open training session before the start of the season and we had more than 70 women show up.

"We've cut that squad down to 29 ahead of the final deadline for this Sunday's games. A high percentage of those players we haven't seen before and for me that's massively exciting. I've been involved in women's rugby a while now and this year it's great to see some new players coming through.

"There's a high standard of player too and we didn't lose a game last year so a repeat of that would be great."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

SCARLETS: Joanna Price is relatively new to the game, having previously player football. She plays her club rugby for Division 3 side Haverfordwest. In a short time with the region she has already illustrated plenty of potential from fly half.

OSPREYS: Elli Norkett (18) and Hannah Jones (17) are both in their first season of senior rugby, having both played Sevens last season. Norkett is a winger while Jones is a fly half.

DRAGONS: Laura Orgil is a feisty winger, very quick and punches well above her weight.

BLUES: Prop Aimee Dymek is a student at Cardiff Met and has a great attitude. She's impressed in training and her scrummaging ability is very high.

* Last weekend the regional teams kicked off the season with a festival of rugby at Cardiff Arms Park where Wales Women's head coach Rhys Edwards was an interested observer. While there, WRU TV's Graeme Gillespie chatted to him about the season ahead. CLICK HERE to hear his thoughts.

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